Environment 3

I am optimistic that Gail Norton (Interior) and Christie Whitman (EPA) will bring a sensible set of priorities to the eenvironmental arena. Certainly we want to preserve the nation's beauty and make sure that polluters are held responsible for the costs they impose on others, but the radical groups that typically get to lable people as "pro-environment" or "anti-environment" have really skewed priorities. There's a whole host of environmental scare stories that the Left is unwilling to subject to reasoned analysis, instead believing with religious tenacity in a global warming apocalypse despite strong evidence to the contrary. It's also mystifying the confidence they place in gov't central planning, when private stewardship of land has such a better history of success. The way much of New Mexico was engulfed in flames thanks to Bruce Babbitt's Interior Department should be remembered forever as an example of how "public lands" wind up as ill-kept as public bathrooms.